John Fitzgerald Kennedy

If we succeed here, if we can build a strong and vital society, then the cause of freedom is strengthened.

We are not electing a committee next Tuesday; we are electing a President of the United States.

We are the chief defenders of freedom, and it is incumbent upon us to get moving again.

Mr. Nixon based his campaign on three points: First, that this country's economy was never so good; secondly, that our prestige in the world was never higher; third, that the balance of power in the world was moving in the direction of…

I want to make it clear that if I am elected President of the United States, I will go to Washington, D.C., and begin to work.

First, that we provide 15,000 to 25,000 national scholarships for our brightest and most talented boys and girls, who will return that investment many times over in their useful life to our country.

I come to this county which is not celebrated as one of the strongest Democratic counties north of the Mason-Dixon line and ask your support on November 8.

I ask your support not merely for my candidacy or that of my colleagues, but I ask your support in choosing right for this country, in moving this country forward, in picking it up and sending it into the sixties to meet its…

I come here to New Jersey tonight to ask your help, not only for my own candidacy, and that of Senator Johnson, but because I believe the positions we have taken in this campaign as they affect the security of the United States are in the…

Let me just say the three things that we stand for in making up your judgment.

And I do not believe that any candidate for office who runs in 1960 on a constant program of reassurance, of pallid promises, of vague charges and innuendoes and personal abuse is meeting his responsibilities to the great Republic.

As Maine goes, so goes Vermont, and I hope so goes the Nation.

But if you hold my view that the United States as the great defender of freedom in the 1960's has to move ahead, has to provide opportunity for its people, has to develop in this country a strong and vigorous society which it cannot…

Two, I do not believe that this administration has attracted to Washington men and women of sufficient intellectual curiosity, foresight, vitality, and energy and we will send the best talent we can get to represent us around the world.

What possible indication is there in either the personnel or in the speeches that there is going to be a new movement forward in the United States if Mr. Nixon is elected?

If we fail here, if we drift, if we lie at anchor, if we don't provide an example of what freedom can do in the 1960's, then we have betrayed not only ourselves and our destiny, but all those who desire to be free and are not free.

I come here in the last 48 hours of this campaign to the greatest rally that we have had in this entire campaign, right here in this city.

I come here tonight and ask you to join us, ask you to make a decision which will permit this country to have the kind of leadership which will enable us to build a strong and vital society, a society which will serve as an inspiration to…

This country cannot survive unless the political leaders, those who seek positions of responsibility, are willing to tell the people the truth, and you cannot hide the truth in all the department agencies in Washington.

You can have an effect here and across the country, and I come here tonight and ask your help.

The cause of all mankind is the cause of America.

My judgment is clear.

Every assumption upon which Mr. Nixon has based his campaign, away back in August, every assumption has begun to crumble.

I warn you that the present rate of economic growth, the present rise in the power and prestige of the United States, is not enough, is not good enough.

We are going to try to win this election on Tuesday, and then make this election worth winning by by doing something for our country.